wrestling / TV Reports
Csonka’s NJPW Wrestling HINOKUNI Review 4.29.15
Image Credit: NJPW
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As a reminder, this will not be another traditional recap, but instead it will be a mash up of the Rs, Instant Analysis and my usual Twitter ramblings I would do during the shows; completely uncensored and as the ideas flow unfiltered to the old keyboard. Remember, this is a review; and I am here to review the show. As always, I encourage discussion and even disagreement, just do so in a respectful manner. I will be doing the review for Raw and most PPVs and iPPVs going forward.
NJPW Wrestling HINOKUNI 4.29.15
OFFICIAL RESULTS
* Gedo & Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Beretta) defeated Jay White, Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka via pin [**]
* Bullet Club (Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall) defeated Satoshi Kojima & Captain New Japan via pin [**]
* KUSHIDA, Manabu Nakanishi & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Mascara Dorada, Tiger Mask & Yuji Nagata via pin [**]
* NWA Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Champion Steve Anthony defeated Jushin Liger via pin [***]
* NWA World Title Match: Champion Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Big Daddy Yum Yum via pin [**¼]
* Bullet Club (Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Kenny Omega) defeated Tetsuya Naito, Tomoaki Honma & Alex Shelley via pin [***]
* Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI defeated Bullet Club (Tama Tonga & Bad Luck Fale) via pin [**½]
* Kazushi Sakuraba, Toru Yano & Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Katsuyori Shibata, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Hirooki Goto via pin [***½]
* NEVER Openweight Title Match: Togi Makabe defeated Champion Tomohiro Ishii via pin to become the new champion [****¼]
Gedo & Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Beretta) defeated Jay White, Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka: This was a perfectly fine, but unspectacular opening bout. I actually had high hopes (not crazy expectations) for this match, and it just felt kind of there. They did stuff, it was fine, we got the Boston crab spot from the heels and then we had a finish. The work was clean, and from a technical standpoint there was nothing wrong, but they did nothing to get me excited or to pull me in. I want some more excitement from my opener, overall this felt flat to me. Roppongi Vice’s team winning was the right call.
Bullet Club (Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall) defeated Satoshi Kojima & Captain New Japan: This was another solid but unspectacular tag match, similar to the opening match. The match was about what you’d expect, Kojima did well, Captain New Japan wanted the tag, and then he got the tag and did some spots and then got pinned. Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall winning here was the right call, first of all everyone pins Captain New Japan, and giving them a win, even on a smaller show like this is needed so that they have some credibility.
KUSHIDA, Manabu Nakanishi & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Mascara Dorada, Tiger Mask & Yuji Nagata: Three for three as far as perfectly fine, but forgettable tag team matches. Like the other matches, it was around eight minuets long and what they did was fine, but there was just nothing engaging for me. They did stuff, it felt rushed to me and never settled down into something to sink your teeth into and then KUSHIDA scored a rollup on Dorada and that was that. Dorada sold the loss well, but this was a match.
NWA Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Champion Steve Anthony defeated Jushin Liger: I have to admit, I do not recall ever seeing Steve Anthony and if I did it was likely once or twice and he didn’t leave an impression one way or another. Anthony didn’t rock the world or anything, but his work was good, Bruce Tharpe continues to be Bruce Tharpe (and that is a good thing) and Liger still works really hard when he gets a chance in singles matches. Liger got the phantom pin after a ref bump, Tharpe then scored a low blow and Anthony got the win with a TKO. The while thing just worked well together, I am not a fan of the ref bumps and shenanigans all the time, but when we can keep it to a minimum and to a character like Tharpe it can work. I enjoyed this the most of anything thus far, Liger singles matches are fun and Tharpe is a tremendous asshole character.
NWA World Title Match: Champion Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Big Daddy Yum Yum: Big Daddy Yum Yum is back and he brought his moonsault with him! They got some time, I actually was into this more than the opening tag matches and this time Tharpe tried to get involved but it failed and Tenzan retained the title. The match was perfectly fine, had some decent drama and didn’t offend. Big Daddy Yum Yum is a guilty pleasure, he’s not good (and can be very clumsy), but at times he can have a decent little match. For it’s place on the card, it was perfectly fine but I would have cut a couple of minutes.
Bullet Club (Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Kenny Omega) defeated Tetsuya Naito, Tomoaki Honma & Alex Shelley: This was a very typical Bullet Club six-man tag here. Anderson is obsessed with Maria and keeps calling for her, which upsets Gallows. Bullet Club worked over Shelley, Honma got the hot tag, which was a lot of fun. it broke down towards the end, Honma then missed the Kokeshi and ate a stun gun and magic killer and the Bullet Club stood tall.
Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI defeated Bullet Club (Tama Tonga & Bad Luck Fale): This was a very standard tag match here, nothing wrong with it, but they were (not dogging it) just doing what needed to be done. The goal was for Okada & YOSHI-HASHI to score the win to hype the May 3rd match with Styles and Takahashi. Mission accomplished, and I ended up enjoying this more than the opening stretch of tag matches.
Kazushi Sakuraba, Toru Yano & Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Katsuyori Shibata, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Hirooki Goto: This was set to show case Tanahashi/Yano, Shibata/Sakuraba and Nakamura/Goto, who are all meeting in matches on May 3rd with Nakamura and Goto main eventing for the IC Title. They worked a good tag match and then kicked it up to another level as the match broke down. This became really enjoyable, with the feuds being addressed and good work from all involved. Yano scores another win on Tanahashi with a cradle to continue that. This accomplished exactly what it needed to in order to build to May 3rd, and to this point was the best match of the night.
NEVER Openweight Title Match: Togi Makabe defeated Champion Tomohiro Ishii to become the new champion: The crowd wasn’t super into this early, which was a bit surprising, but as the match went on and the battle escalated, they got into it. Makabe had not lost the title, but had it stripped due to illness, so this felt like a battle of two men trying to prove that they were the real NEVER champion. This was the match that you’d expect them to have, hard hitting, a real fight feel with the chops, head butts and stiff lariats all feeling down and dirty. Makabe ended up firing up at the end and overcame Ishii’s offense to score the win and the title back with the King Kong knee drop. This was a really great match to close out the show.
* End scene.
* Thanks for reading.
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”
